<![CDATA[Paging America]]>https://www.pagingamerica.orghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ALPj!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F30a1183b-a668-4a03-9e7e-86440a500e9d_1200x1200.pngPaging Americahttps://www.pagingamerica.orgSubstackSat, 22 Aug 2026 05:07:31 GMT<![CDATA[Trump Nominates a Zealot to Lead the FDA]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/trump-nominates-a-zealot-to-leadhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/trump-nominates-a-zealot-to-leadThu, 20 Aug 2026 19:23:11 GMTTrump has nominated Dr. Heidi Overton, an outspoken anti-abortion, anti-vaccine ideologue, to run the FDA, one of the most powerful regulatory agencies in the country. Miles and Dr. Rob dig into Overton’s record, including her celebration of the fall of Roe v. Wade and her history of spreading misinformation about medication abortion. We explain why her appointment could signal a coming fight over mifepristone access and we take a look at soon-to-be-former Senator Bill Cassidy’s tepid, wiggle-room “concerns” about the nomination. We take a look at Cassidy’s track record on RFK Jr. and other controversial picks and whether or not he’ll stand in the way of her nomination.

From there, we turn to RFK Jr.’s latest vaccine falsehood. He cites new research that supports splitting up the MMR shot. The problem is…. He just made the research up. It doesn’t exist.

Plus, we take a look at the Trump administration’s slow and possibly influence-tainted response to a massive cyclospora outbreak, nwhich now tops 27,000 cases. The outbreak has been linked to a Taylor Farms lettuce facility in Mexico that hadn’t been FDA-inspected in seven years. Not to mention the political contributions flowing from Taylor Farms to Donald Trump and his bank accounts.

Finally, Miles and Dr. Rob sit down with William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, fresh off a primary win that outside observers called unprecedented for the region. They talk about his grassroots, organizer-driven campaign; the fight against data center development bulldozing small Michigan towns; the impact of a shuttered Planned Parenthood clinic on over 60,000 district residents; and what Democrats should prioritize in the next two years to set the stage for real healthcare reform in 2029.

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]]><![CDATA[Rural hospitals in a Trump-made crisis]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/rural-hospitals-in-a-trump-made-crisishttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/rural-hospitals-in-a-trump-made-crisisWed, 19 Aug 2026 20:25:32 GMT

The headlines tell the story:

“National report lists almost 20% of rural Arkansas hospitals at ‘immediate risk of closing‘”

“Report: Roughly 1 in 5 rural Virginia hospitals at risk of closure”

“Report: 12 Tennessee rural hospitals at ‘immediate risk’ for closure”

“Rural Nebraska Dialysis Unit Closes Despite the State’s $219M in Rural Health Funding”

“700 rural hospitals at risk of closing, by state”

Rural hospitals already on the brink

The 2020 census showed one in five Americans live in rural areas. In general, the residents there are older, in poorer health, and have less insurance coverage than the rest of the country, or no coverage at all. In the seven years before the last census, 4% of rural hospitals closed, leaving their communities without local emergency services, maternity wards, and other essential health care services.

One analysis shows that, between 2010 and 2025, 182 rural hospitals closed and 46% of rural hospitals had a negative operating margin.

In other words, rural hospitals were already struggling when Trump and congressional Republicans passed the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). When Trump signed it into law in the summer of 2025, it cut $137 billion in Medicaid dollars from rural areas over ten years and replaced it with a one-time infusion of $50 billion through the Rural Health Transformation Fund (RHTF.)

Trump calls the RHTF “largest ever investment in rural healthcare,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called it “the biggest infusion of federal dollars into rural health care in American history,” and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz called it the “biggest investment, the most ambitious investment, in rural health care ever.” With a straight face, they say this while asking us to ignore the fact that the OBBBA represents an $87 billion cut to rural health care. They also fail to mention that it will throw over 10 million Americans off their health insurance while cutting taxes by $5 trillion, mostly benefiting the country’s wealthiest people.

Rural residents face monumental health care disparities

In a piece titled, “The Crisis in Rural Health Care”, the University of Kansas Medical Center has a depressing list of ways in which rural residents are impacted by health care disparities. For example:

  • Rural death rates are higher for both men and women.

  • The suicide rate is significantly higher in rural areas particularly among adult men and children.

  • Hypertension is more common in rural areas.

  • Only one-third of all motor vehicle accidents occur in rural areas but two-thirds of the deaths attributed to these accidents occur on rural roads.

  • While 25% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, only 10% of U.S. physicians work in those areas.

  • There are only 40.1 specialists per 100,000 people in rural areas versus 134.1 in urban areas.

  • 20% of rural communities lack mental health services compared to 5% of metropolitan counties.

Because the care they need is not locally available, rural patients often turn to telehealth. However, that is often not an option, either. The USDA estimates that over 22% of Americans in rural areas lacked access to the broadband internet services that are needed for telehealth services.

The “beating heart” of their communities

Not only do rural hospitals provide essential services to their surrounding communities, they’re also a bedrock institution that touches people in other ways:

Hospitals are often one of the largest employers in rural communities. They provide stable, high-paying jobs and support local economies through purchasing, construction, and partnerships with small businesses. When a rural hospital closes, it triggers a ripple effect—leading to job losses, business closures, and population decline. [...]

The National Rural Health Association calls them “the beating heart of a local economy”:

A hospital is often the centerpiece of economic viability in rural America, providing jobs for a community’s residents and resources for its development. The positive impact of a thriving hospital starts at the heart of nearby towns and stretches across many miles, providing a vital boost to families and local businesses in the surrounding region. Nationwide, hospitals support more than 16 million total jobs, including 5.7 million direct jobs in health care and 10.3 million ripple-effect jobs, according to the American Hospital Association’s January 2017 report on the economic contributions of hospitals. The report estimates that every dollar spent by a hospital supports $2.30 of additional business activity. For rural communities, the link between hospitals and the local economy is even more pronounced, often due to the absence of other large employers.

The impacts of the massive cut to rural health care are quickly being felt

Thanks to the OBBBA, hospitals are already closing. For example, in Wisconsin, Hospital Sisters Health System and Prevea announced a “complete exit” from Western Wisconsin in January, which included closing two hospitals and 19 clinics. CNN reports about a hospital in Georgia:

St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in rural Lavonia, Georgia, closed its labor and delivery unit, as well as its obstetrics and gynecology center, last fall. Expectant mothers now must drive about 30 minutes to the nearest hospital with labor and delivery services or about an hour to St. Mary’s hospital in Athens, which still operates a maternity ward.

In rural Nebraska, a hospital closed its dialysis unit in March despite the state receiving $219 million from the RHTF. Seven of Virginia’s 36 rural hospitals either face an immediate closure risk or are at high risk of experiencing financial distress, according to one report.

These are examples of the 700 rural hospitals – one-third of all rural hospitals in the country – that one study found to be currently at risk of closing because of the serious financial problems they are experiencing. When they close, rural residents lose access to vital services like emergency care, prenatal and maternity care, oncology care, and inpatient care – medical or psychiatric care that requires an overnight stay in a hospital or specialized treatment facility.

In addition, patients are forced to travel much farther for the care they need, even to emergency departments. The General Accounting Office found that when a rural hospital closes, patients have to travel nearly 24 miles for inpatient care. In urban areas, they travel just over three miles.

Republicans take no blame, have no real answers

Having satisfied their wealthy donors with this massive tax cut bill, Republicans are attempting to shift the blame for and to paint a rosy picture of the rural hospital crisis they created. For example, Dr. Oz blamed it on big cities and undocumented residents.

Speaking to reporters in February, Vice President JD Vance responded to a question about the rural hospital crisis by saying, “Unfortunately, this, like so much of what’s going on in the country right now, is a problem we inherited from the previous administration.”

Dr. Oz even seems to think it’s cool that there are not enough physicians to serve rural communities. At a White House roundtable discussion about health care in rural America with Trump, RFK Jr., and other healthcare advisers, he said it’s “pretty cool” that they’re having to use robots to perform ultrasounds on pregnant people because of the shortage of OB/GYNs there:

“Alabama has no OBGYNs in many of their counties, so they’re doing something pretty cool. They’re actually having robots do ultrasounds on these pregnant moms so we can actually get those images back to the big center so we know if this child has a problem and we know if that mother is at risk. We have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world in the country with the best medicine in the world…”

Oz and RFK Jr. both tout artificial intelligence as the solution for dying hospitals:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team want to Make Rural America Healthy again.

He has suggested that AI nurses could save dying rural hospitals. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said robots could give ultrasounds to women and touted how AI avatars could help. [...]

Their ultimate “solution” to the crisis is invariably the RHTF. Not only does it not even half fill the $137 billion hole in rural health care funding they created with the OBBBA, it’s being used as both a cudgel and a political weapon. For example, the federal government can claw back RHTF funds or reduce future funding to force states to do things the way the Trump administration wants them done. Via KFF Health News:

During the past six months, as states raced to meet the program’s looming federal deadlines, CMS staffers worked with state health departments to make a flurry of changes, including scrapping some initiatives. The federal agency has the power to rescind existing funding — or reduce future awards — if states don’t follow rules or meet their goals. “We will take the money back” if states “don’t abide by what they wrote, if they don’t do a good job,” Oz said at an event this month in Washington, D.C. [...]

Talking Points Memo highlighted how the requirements for receiving funds from the RHTF are politically charged:

Before the program was rolled out, healthcare stakeholders told TPM that its parameters could disadvantage certain states and benefit others. The CMS scoring system distributed the funds based on a complex weighted formula which included a range of partisan policy-based factors, including whether states restrict SNAP users from buying “non-nutritious foods” and whether states plan to require Trump’s “Presidential Fitness Test” in schools. State scores could also be impacted if the state restricts certain health insurance plans, sometimes called junk plans, which don’t comply with Affordable Care Act coverage standards.

“We have an administration which just says right out, ‘We’re gonna cut money to blue states and blue communities,’ and it is doing it,” Adam Searing, an attorney and research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, told TPM in November. “If you happen to live in a community that we disagree with politically, too bad.”

Crisis not averted

Dr. Oz was right about one thing, rural hospitals have been in big trouble for some time. However, taking $137 billion from them and replacing it with less than half that amount of a “hunger games” style program that is used to force states to comply with the Trump administration’s goals is rapidly making matters worse. The problems confronting rural communities will not be addressed solely through the use of robots and artificial intelligence. They need a comprehensive plan of investment into health care that can strengthen these important components of rural communities.

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]]><![CDATA[On Call by Paging America: Falling Vaccination Rates and Herd Immunity]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-fallinghttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-fallingTue, 18 Aug 2026 14:56:20 GMTJust in time for the new school year, CDC data show MMR vaccination rates have dropped below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity.

In this episode, Dr. Erin Stevens and Dr. Rob Davidson break down what's driving the decline in vaccination rates around the country. We have state-level exemption policies and rhetoric from RFK Jr. and the Trump administration around splitting up the MMR vaccine leading to mass confusion over health policy. It’s led to measles, a disease the U.S. declared eliminated in 2000, is now seeing its highest case numbers in 35 years. They discuss the real health risks of measles (including encephalitis and long-term organ damage), why public trust and misinformation are central to the problem, and what it will take to reverse the trend.

]]><![CDATA[The Situation Womb: Trust Your Doctor, Not Your Senator]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-situation-womb-trust-your-doctorhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-situation-womb-trust-your-doctorMon, 17 Aug 2026 21:37:52 GMTThis week, we break down the biggest stories at the intersection of reproductive healthcare and politics. We start with some good news! Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed a bill lifting restrictions on abortion at or after 24 weeks, making it one of the broadest laws in the country. The hosts explain why late abortion care, often misunderstood by the public, is really about trusting physicians to handle the countless “shades of gray” that arbitrary gestational limits can’t account for and why putting that decision back in doctors’ hands will save lives.

We then turn to Idaho, where a federal judge ruled the state can’t enforce its near-total abortion ban against physicians acting to protect a patient’s health, not just their life. Dr Chris Ford explains that legal distinction matters clinically, drawing on his experience in emergency medicine to explain how pregnancy complications can turn deadly within minutes.

From there, it’s a tour of wins and losses across the map: Colorado becomes the fifth state requiring abortion medication access on college campuses, a move the hosts say normalizes reproductive healthcare as part of everyday student life. In Michigan, Oakland County votes to keep a Planned Parenthood clinic open with $1.5 million in local funding, a reminder that Planned Parenthood provides far more than abortion care. But Oklahoma delivers a gut punch, criminalizing possession of abortion-inducing drugs with penalties of up to ten years in prison.

The conversation widens to a global scale as the hosts examine the fallout from the dissolution of USAID, which has cut off maternal health resources, contraception, and postpartum care to countries around the world. They discuss rising maternal deaths in places like Nigeria and Myanmar, and soaring rates of unsafe abortion in countries like Liberia, where access to contraception has collapsed alongside U.S. funding.

Finally, Chris and Kristin take aim at Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul for resurfacing old, since-debunked texts from Dr. Fauci to falsely suggest a link between COVID vaccines and miscarriage. The hosts unpack the difference between a theoretical risk raised in real time during a global pandemic and the years of evidence that followed and why weaponizing outdated science to scare pregnant patients does lasting damage to public trust in medicine. As always, the doctors close with a reminder: trust your providers, not your politicians.

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]]><![CDATA[Episode #68 Deep Dive – CDC in a Death Spiral]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-68-deep-dive-cdc-in-a-deathhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-68-deep-dive-cdc-in-a-deathFri, 14 Aug 2026 16:02:28 GMTThis content is available to paid subscribers only. Thank you for your support!

››› Progressives on the march

Progressives scored wins in some high-profile Democratic primaries this week. In Michigan,…

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]]><![CDATA[CDC in a Death Spiral]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/cdc-in-a-death-spiralhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/cdc-in-a-death-spiralThu, 13 Aug 2026 19:40:40 GMTMiles Baker and Dr. Rob Davidson break down the week in health politics: surprise primary results across Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota show healthcare access becoming a defining issue for Democratic candidates even as national narratives miss what’s actually happening on the ground.

Then, eight red states move to skip a federal grace period and impose harsher Medicaid work-reporting requirements, despite data showing most recipients already work. We explain how this seems to be more about paperwork and reporting requirements rather than WORK requirements

Plus: Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche is confirmed as Attorney General with the help of Senator Bill Cassidy, and the FDA approves flavored nicotine pouches like “Rich Berry” amid new scrutiny over tobacco industry political donations.

For our interview, we welcome back Yolanda Jacobs, president of AFGE Local 2883, which is the union representing workers at the CDC. She returns to give an unflinching, on-the-ground account of what CDC employees have endured over the past year. It was one year ago that the agency endured a shooting that killed officer David Rose. Jacobs shares her thoughts on RFK Jr.’s first campus visit since the tragedy, the widespread reductions in force, denied disability accommodations, and a workforce she describes as being in a “death spiral.”

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]]><![CDATA[The Shocking Things Trump Said About Childhood Vaccines This Week]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-shocking-things-trump-said-abouthttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-shocking-things-trump-said-aboutWed, 12 Aug 2026 16:23:24 GMTOn Monday, President Trump announced a new Executive Order (EO) covering the childhood vaccine schedule. The EO recommends a number of changes, the most notable of which is reducing the number of diseases targeted by routine childhood vaccination from 17 to 11 (a 35% decrease) and the number of routine vaccines from 13 to 7 (a 46% decrease), as well as separating the combined measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate single-disease shots.

Notably, no individual shots are currently available on the market, and they would have to go through the FDA approval process before they are.

Trump’s Unhinged Comments During the Event

The EO is scary enough, coming as it does from an administration with a history of making terrible and dangerous public health decisions. What’s more frightening are the unhinged comments and outright disinformation that the president uttered during the Oval Office event.

Although the shots are generally just a tenth of a teaspoon or even less, Trump said, “Large amounts — like vats — of vaccine are currently pumped into your child’s body,” and he wants to “let time elapse between visits so the body can handle this massive amount of fluid being pumped in.” He also said he’s seen proof of “vaccinations the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body. And bad things happen…”

Then there’s this: “In many cases, we were requiring 72 jabs for our beautiful, healthy, lovely, delicate little children.” The actual number of “jabs” is about half that over 18 years.

With regard to the MMR vaccine, Trump said, “You have the MMR, we want it in three separate vaccinations given at separate times. Together there could be a possibility they are quite lethal and separately, it looks like they are not at all lethal but just very effective.” The MMR shot has been given for over five decades and is not in any way “quite lethal.” In fact, there is literally no evidence to suggest giving them separately is in any way safer.

What’s more, Dr. Richard Besser, the president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the CDC, told The New York Times, splitting up the MMR vaccine serves “no medical purpose and would force parents to make multiple appointments, needlessly take time off work and make child care arrangements.” In other words, it could actually be dangerous to split them up.

The EO says the vaccines for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and meningococcal disease should only be given to high-risk children. However, these are diseases that can be fatal to anyone.

Trump Wants to be the Hero of Autism

Trump seems to want to be known as the guy who solved autism. During the event, he said, “Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today. In those times, people were much healthy [sic], and of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist. So there’s a reason for such epidemic rates of autism, and we’re going to bring it back to where it was.” He also said, “I came in and I said, ‘I want to find what’s going on with autism.’ It’s many, many times what it used to be years ago, and it gets progressively worse, and we had progressively more and more vaccines.”

This desire to be the autism hero may be why he said his so-called “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations” are “something that I think will have a huge impact on autism.” This is obviously disinformation. Any suggested link between vaccines and autism – a major windmill that anti-vaxxers tilt at – has been debunked time and time again by actual scientific studies. And the increase in autism diagnoses is generally attributed to better screening and higher awareness, not some external cause like vaccines or acetaminophen. Additionally, his assertion that there were only “1 in 10,000 [cases of autism in children] 20 years ago” is simply false. In 2006, it was actually 1 in 110.

Perhaps the most subtly dangerous thing Trump said was, “There’s nothing that we lose with this. The worst thing that would happen would be nothing happens.” The truth is, when, not if, kids get sick from preventable diseases because they weren’t vaccinated for them, some of them will die needlessly. And if immuno-compromised kids get sick because their classmates or friends weren’t vaccinated, some of them will die needlessly, as well.

For someone who pretends to be so concerned about “our beautiful, healthy, lovely, delicate little children”, Trump couldn’t actually seem to focus during the event. When he wasn’t talking, he appeared to be either nodding off or actually sleeping through others’ remarks.

Trump sleeps during interim CDC director Jay Bhattacharya’s remarks [VIDEO]

Doctors Respond to Trump’s Executive Order

The response to this EO from physicians is about what you would expect.

Dr. Willie Underwood III, president of the American Medical Association, released a statement saying, “Decisions about how and when vaccines are used should be driven by rigorous scientific evidence, patient safety, and independent medical and public health expertise. Altering a proven vaccination schedule without credible evidence risks weakening public confidence and putting children’s health at risk.”

Dr. Andrew D. Racine, president, American Academy of Pediatrics, said, “Today’s executive order is not based on ‘gold-standard science.’ There is no new evidence to justify significant changes to childhood immunization guidance…The only purpose of this announcement is to sow confusion so that more people doubt the importance of vaccines.”

Even Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy took to X to blast the president:

I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes.

Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism.

Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe.

Parents should listen to their child’s pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order. This is so wrong.

The Upshot: Americans Don’t Agree with this BS

Thankfully, polling shows that Americans largely are still supportive of vaccines and don’t believe the myths surrounding them, myths perpetuated by the U.S. president along with his public health advisors like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But it’s a dangerous situation when our top leaders are lying to us about anything, much less our public health systems.

It’s a terrible day when a pediatric practice feels compelled to put a warning on their vaccination webpage that says, “The CDC is no longer considered to be a reliable or legitimate source of information.”

With the November midterm elections just around the corner, we’re about to find out if voters will hold their leaders accountable.

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]]><![CDATA[On Call: Trump Asleep at the Wheel on Vaccines]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-trump-asleephttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-trump-asleepTue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:40 GMTDonald Trump rolled out a new executive order that rewrites the childhood vaccine schedule.

Dr. Rob and Miles break down what splitting the MMR vaccine into multiple visits actually means for working families who don’t have the time, money, or flexibility to make five separate doctor’s appointments, and why that gap could mean more unprotected kids at a moment when measles cases are already climbing.

We also take a look at Trump’s Oval Office announcement and have some concerns about just how “engaged” the president really was in his own health announcement.

]]><![CDATA[The Situation Womb: When Medication Abortion Becomes A Deadly Weapon]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-situation-womb-when-medicationhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-situation-womb-when-medicationMon, 10 Aug 2026 20:14:24 GMTThis week on Situation Womb, the full crew is back together to unpack a packed news cycle at the intersection of reproductive health and politics.

They start with AOC’s public egg-freezing journey and why normalizing that conversation matters. Naturally, her detractors made her announcement VERY weird.

We also discuss the confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General and what his ties to anti-abortion advocacy groups could mean for a backdoor national abortion ban.

The conversation turns heavier with a devastating case out of Durham County, North Carolina, where an 18-year-old and her partner face criminal charges including “assault with a deadly weapon” after she took abortion medication in her third trimester. The hosts unpack what happens when restrictive laws corner vulnerable patients instead of protecting them.

They close on some rare good news: abortion pill access via telehealth has quadrupled in Missouri since 2023, and new polling shows most Americans, including a surprising share of Republicans, oppose criminalizing medication abortion.

Plus, an update on Elon Musk potentially facing bribery charges in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a sneaky ballot measure in Kansas aimed at reshaping the state Supreme Court, a California lawsuit targeting crisis pregnancy centers for peddling fake “abortion pill reversal” claims, and a Wyoming physician taking on her own state government in court to keep providing care

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]]><![CDATA[Episode #67 Deep Dive – Fauci in Contempt, Kennedy Off the Rails]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-67-deep-dive-fauci-in-contempthttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-67-deep-dive-fauci-in-contemptFri, 07 Aug 2026 16:03:15 GMTThis content is available to paid subscribers only. Thank you for your support!

Be sure to check out a special episode of On Call with Lincoln Project COO Jeff Timmer and a lively discussion about Dr.…

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]]><![CDATA[Fauci in Contempt, Kennedy Off the Rails]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/fauci-in-contempt-kennedy-off-thehttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/fauci-in-contempt-kennedy-off-theThu, 06 Aug 2026 18:14:10 GMTIt’s been a chaotic week in health politics. The Senate Homeland Security Committee votes along party lines to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt, a move Rob and Miles call political theater with ugly historical echoes. The passage of the resolution clears the way for a criminal referral to the Justice Department, where Todd Blanche could be waiting for retribution.

We also dig into what healthcare affordability is doing to the Michigan and Wisconsin primaries, and why flipping Wisconsin’s state legislature could finally deliver Medicaid expansion, along with other healthcare victories, after 15 years of gridlock.

Elsewhere: the Senate confirms Erica Schwartz as CDC’s first permanent director in over a year despite her dodging questions on standing up to RFK Jr and Nebraska has fast-tracked their plan of kicking people off Medicaid under new work-reporting requirements.

Finally, in HHS updates, new polling shows independents souring hard on Kennedy’s handling of vaccines; and RFK Jr. has a widely-mocked, shouting meltdown in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash PLUS we dissect the debut of his new cooking show and float the idea of…. Liver Burgers?

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]]><![CDATA[On Call by Paging America: What Abdul El-Sayed's Win Means For Healthcare]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-the-healthcarehttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-the-healthcareWed, 05 Aug 2026 20:35:09 GMTMichigan just delivered a political earthquake, and former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party and current COO of the Lincoln Project Jeff Timmer us to break it all down.

Abdul El-Sayed pulled off an upset Senate primary win despite being vastly outspent by Haley Stevens, and Timmer explains why money alone couldn’t buy this race. He digs into the deeper story: a bipartisan wave of economic anxiety, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and voters in both parties desperate to punish incumbents and reward outsiders with a clear message.

On the Republican side, Timmer offers a sharp, insider’s take on Mike Rogers: the one-time mainstream Republican who “went into deep freeze” in 2014 and reemerged in 2026 running a MAGA-era campaign with 1990s instincts, all while carrying a voting record on the Affordable Care Act that clashes with what voters actually want.

Join the fight at committeetoprotect.org.

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]]><![CDATA[August 5, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/august-5-2026-the-week-in-healthhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/august-5-2026-the-week-in-healthWed, 05 Aug 2026 16:02:20 GMTThis content is available to paid subscribers only. Thank you for your support!

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

POLITICO reported that Trump’s personal attorney and nominee to be Att…

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]]><![CDATA[On Call by Paging America: What Blanche's AG Nomination Means for Abortion Access]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-what-blancheshttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-what-blanchesTue, 04 Aug 2026 20:39:26 GMTThe Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General. It was a 12-10 vote that he secured only after formally rescinding an anti-weaponization fund to bring two holdout senators on board.

There has been recent reporting that Blanche privately told religious leaders he intends to use the Comstock Act to ban mailing medication abortion nationwide. They discuss why this isn't just a "red state" issue. In fact, even states with constitutional abortion protections, like California and Michigan, could see medication abortion access cut off.

We also discuss Blanche's record dismissing FACE Act cases meant to protect clinics and providers. This is a call to action for voters in states with pivotal Senate seats like Maine, Alaska, and Ohio to speak up before the full Senate vote.

]]><![CDATA[The Situation Womb: Battleground Districts Draw Lines on Abortion Bans]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-situation-womb-battleground-districtshttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-situation-womb-battleground-districtsMon, 03 Aug 2026 19:55:20 GMTWith midterms approaching, new polling shows a national abortion ban is a top deal-breaker for nearly half of likely voters in key battleground House districts. We dig into how this is already reshaping races, from Tom Tiffany scrubbing his no-exceptions ban stance from his campaign website in Wisconsin, to the closely watched Georgia Senate race between John Ossoff (whose wife is an OBGYN) and his opponent.

We also unpack a new study linking state-level abortion restrictions to rising rates of suicidal ideation among teen girls. It’s a trend not mirrored in teen boys, and one that appears independent of whether the girls themselves are pregnant. States with greater reproductive freedom saw declines in these rates over the same period.

There is a disturbing story out of North Dakota, where a longtime OBGYN has been accused of secretly using his own sperm to inseminate fertility patients for years without their knowledge or consent, reportedly defending the practice as standard for the era. We discuss the scope of his influence in the state's maternal health system, questions about who else may have known, and what a formal investigation could uncover.

Finally, we dismantle a bogus "study" claiming mifepristone is contaminating wastewater (spoiler: it's propaganda dressed up as science) and debunk the resurfaced myth that COVID vaccines contain fetal body parts.

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]]><![CDATA[Episode #66 Deep Dive – The Yips: Trump’s Frustration with RFK Jr.]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-66-deep-dive-the-yips-trumpshttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-66-deep-dive-the-yips-trumpsFri, 31 Jul 2026 16:00:09 GMTThis content is available to paid subscribers only. Thank you for your support!

››› Fauci Faces a Phalanx of Fools

On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security Committee questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci onc…

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]]><![CDATA[On Call by Paging America: How Losing ACA Subsidies Is Emptying Hospitals]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-how-losinghttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/on-call-by-paging-america-how-losingFri, 31 Jul 2026 11:01:18 GMTNew data from the New York Times reveals a healthcare crisis unfolding faster than almost anyone predicted. Miles and Dr. Erin Stevens break down the fallout from Congress’s failure to extend enhanced ACA premium subsidies. We’ve seen a 13% drop in Obamacare enrollment and roughly one in eleven Americans now uninsured, reversing years of historic progress.

They dig into who’s really absorbing the cost: safety-net and rural hospitals, many already teetering on closure, are seeing deficits balloon as uninsured patients still show up needing (and legally guaranteed) care. Dr. Stevens shares an on-the-ground look at Minnesota’s own near-miss with a major safety-net hospital closure, and explains why labor and delivery units, which are often the first services cut, are driving a growing maternal care crisis in rural communities.

The conversation also turns to politics: Donald Trump’s approval ratings has fallen into the low 30s in some recent polls. Miles and Dr. Stevens explore whether healthcare pain is starting to catch up with public opinion and what it might mean heading into the midterms.

]]><![CDATA[The Yips: Trump’s Frustration with RFK Jr.]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-yips-trumps-frustration-withhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-yips-trumps-frustration-withThu, 30 Jul 2026 19:20:20 GMTThis week on Paging America, Miles Baker and Dr. Rob Davidson break down Dr. Fauci’s contentious Senate hearing. We take a look at Sen. Bernie Moreno’s viral, expletive-laden questioning and what it reveals about political theater overtaking public health oversight.

Plus, a bombshell Wall Street Journal report suggests that Trump, NOT just RFK Jr, may be driving the administration’s escalating attacks on vaccines.

We also unpack two grim public health milestones: the worst U.S. measles outbreak in 35 years and a record-breaking cyclospora outbreak tied to contaminated lettuce. With the continued gutting of our health agencies, it’s only going to get worse.

In the second half, they’re joined by Dr Demetre Daskalakis, former Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, for a candid conversation on Fauci’s legacy, the CDC’s ongoing leadership vacuum, and what it will really take to rebuild and reimagine American public health after this administration.

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]]><![CDATA[July 29, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/july-29-2026-the-week-in-health-carehttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/july-29-2026-the-week-in-health-careWed, 29 Jul 2026 16:02:19 GMTThis content is available to paid subscribers only. Thank you for your support!

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

Some very welcome news, via the Center for Reproductive Rights:

A feder…

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]]><![CDATA[On Call by Paging America: Concepts of a Plan (Again)]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/concepts-of-a-plan-againhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/concepts-of-a-plan-againTue, 28 Jul 2026 19:16:19 GMTAnother day, another healthcare “plan” with a big headline and nothing underneath it. In this episode of On Call by Paging America, Drs. Kristin Lyerly and Chris Ford unpack the newly announced “Great Healthcare Plan” that Trump announced on Monday afternoon in Michigan. We compare it to past promises and ask the question that actually matters: will it help patients?

We cover what’s missing from the proposal, what’s at risk, and why handing people money for “choice” isn’t the same as making healthcare affordable or effective. We make the case that healthcare policy should be judged by outcomes like healthier patients and stronger hospitals and NOT campaign slogans.

Tune in, subscribe, and hold your elected officials accountable this election season.

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